Andrich and Xhaka delighted with hard-earned win
Robert Andrich and Granit Xhaka were proud of the way Bayer Leverkusen won a tricky away game at Heidenheim on Saturday.
It wasn't always pretty, but Bayer Leverkusen got what they wanted with a 2-1 away win over Heidenheim on Saturday.
And that - winning without necessarily playing beautifully for 90 minutes - was particularly satisfying for Robert Andrich.
"It doesn't always have to be beautiful, we can adapt and let the opponent have the ball a bit. We also play long balls sometimes, even if it doesn't look pretty. That's something we've learned," Andrich told Kicker.
"We're very stable mentally, we've made a huge leap in that respect," Andrich continued.
"We don't die in beauty, but sometimes we kick the ball into the stands. That shows how much progress we've made."
Xhaka was equally delighted after the hard-fought victory.
"Of course, expectations were high after the Bayern win. Overall, we were very clever, except for the goal we conceded. But that can always happen with set pieces," he told Sky Germany.
"As expected, Heidenheim played a lot of man-to-man and didn't give us much space. If you want to play at the top, you have to win games like this one," he continued.